Excavations at Standlake Down in I954: The Anglo-Saxon Graves

By TANIA M. DICKINSON

N the late summer of 1954 Dr. H. W. Catling, on behalf of the Ashmolean I Museum, carried out a rescue excavation on five ring-ditches threatened by the advance of gravel extraction on Standlake Down in Oxfordshire.' Very soon afterwards he left the country to work in Cyprus, and his subsequent involve­ ment in the study of the Cypriot Bronze Age meant that his 1954 excavations have remained unpublished. In 1970, when I was making enquiries about the records and material from this excavation, Dr. Catling invited me to publish the Saxon material for him, which I am now very pleased to do. He has put at my disposal all the records, photographs, plans and material which he had. Unfortunately, they do not provide a complete account: the grave-plans made at the time of excavation have been lost, and some of the negatives, now deposited at the Ashmolean Museum, have also been lost or damaged. The objects have now all been accessed into the Ashmolean Museum collection, and the human bones are in the collection of the British Museum (Natural History).

THE SITE (FlG. I) Standlake Down is situated near the southern end of a gravel terrace which lies between the Rivers Windrush and Thames. Since about 1825 gravel extraction has revealed a rich series of archaeological find, the well-known line of Bronze Age ring-ditches, areas of Iron Age settlement, and Anglo-Saxon burials, all of which were first scientifically investigated in the 1850S and 1860s by Stephen Stone.' His plan and enumeration of the ring-ditches, which give the site a convenient topographical framework, have been revised by Gr. Capt. Riley in the light of information from aerial photography.3 Catling excavated in the field bounded to the north by the old gravel quarry, to the west by the Witney-Brighthampton road, and to the south by the cart-track leading eastwards from the road towards the River Windrush ( .G. SP 386054. (FlG. 2). It is approximately on the 210 ft. contour line. Aerial photographs appeared to reveal six ring-ditches, which Catling lettered A-F, and a number of other possible features.' Nothing could be found at Site E, and none of the

1 Briefly reported in &port oJ 1M Visitors of tlu A.shmoltan AluuUJn, '954. '5-17. and OXhnicuin, XIX ('954\. "9· 3 Proc. Stu. Anti"., lSI ~r .• IV (r857). 92~ i 2nd ser., n (1864),442-3 ; ArchatOlogiD, XXXVII (r8S7), 363-70. especially PI. IX. l D, N. Riley, 'A Latt' Bronze Age and Iron Age site on Standlake Downs, Oxon.', O:(onutuia, XI'XU (1946-7). 30 and Fig. 6 . .. AII~n photogr:lphs 1106-7. 1114; Riley photographs 638-9 (Ashmolean Museum) ; Al1en ,,06 is publishC'd in .1. • P. Bradford, • An Early Iron Age It:ulanCf1t at Standlake, Oxon.', Anliq. J .. XXII ('942). PI. XXVIII. Calling's Site A Riley circle 15, Stone 8; B _ Riley 16. Stone 9; c­ Riley 20; 0 - Riley 17. tone II ; F - Rile)' '9. Stone 10. '39 TANIA M. DICKINSON

N t

5 1 o 0 20 60 30 0 7 40 11 0 0 8 9 :; 0 12 0 10

To Bnghthamptonl. feet II 6 1000

110. I Standlake Down, ~owin, Brorue Age ring-ditches. principal axan cemetery (area within rectangle ~ in Fig. 2, p. 241) and suggested auCi of other Saxon graves.

other ring-ditches produced a primary burial, though the two Iron Age pits cutting into the centre of Site D might have totally destroyed an earlier burial.

THE ANGLO-SAXON GRAVES The Anglo-Saxon graves were cut into and outside the south-east section of the ditch of Site D (FIG. 3). This ring-ditch was about 38 m. in diameter, and varied between about 5' 5 m. and 7 m. in width; the ditch had a steep-sided central cutting about 2' 5 m. across, and wide, slightly shelving edges. Catling excavated four graves, which he numbered 1-4, and in the course of the sub­ sequent gravel extraction Mr. Arthur Fenwick reported that a further two graves had been destroyed, from one of which he managed to retrieve a single object. When Mr. David Brown of the Ashmolean Museum assessed both the 1954 and EXCAVATIONS AT STANDLAKE DOWN IN 1954 241

STANDLAKE GENERAL PLAN

•..,on _

\ -- ...... _·t. .... / ../I \ I '''''H_I ...... n (() '"'" . '\.):i ..t. &

Our;; .... .r T \..I r

~11.U

no. ~ General plan of 1954 excavations.

other material recently acquired from Standlake,S he renumbered all the recorded Anglo-Saxon graves from the site, with the result that Catling's graves 1-4 have become Brown's graves 22-25.6 No numbers were given to the two destroyed s Material from graves excavated by Stone, and the: zoomorphic disc found during earlier gravel digging. have recently been acquired by the hmolean Museum, greatly increasing knowledge of the Anglo--Saxon graves; OxoninuU1, XXXVI (1971 ), 112. ' TItiI c:numeration will be wed by David Brown in his forthcoming O:JJaJope qf An,io-Saxon WaDIS ... G'_goods in "" L"f>iN' Tltimus VaJky. TA)oIIA M. DICK!. '50.'

STANDLAKE SITE o

,,

WMI"''' . 'II' ! ! ! !

•• '0"

FlO. 3 Plan OrSile D 'circle '7) v.ith Anglo.. ..lx-on graves. EXCAVATIONS AT STANDLAKE DOWN IN 1954 243 graves, but they could be added to the series as graves 26 and 27. There were probably far more than these six graves; Dr. Catling informs me that there had been extensive earlier gravel digging, particularly along the eastern hedge-line, which could have destroyed graves; the large areas which he was unable to trench in the available time may have contained others.

Grave I ( = grave 22) (PL. XVlII, A).7 Orientation of grave recorded as 2000, Approximate length 6 ft. 4 ins., width varying from about I ft. 6 ins. to 2 ft. 3 ins. Head of grave is straight, foot is rounded. Grave cut into outer lip of ditch. Skeleton of a mature adult female, about 40 years old. Orientation of skeleton nearer 180°, Crouched on r. side close: to r. side of grave, with chest downwards, r. arm crossed under ribs, I. arm folded back on itself, and the legs flexed at right angles, the r. leg higher than the 1. Well-preserved, but skull crushed. No grave-goods.

Grave" ( = grat'" 23) (PL. xvrn, B). S.S.W.-N.N.E. 5 ft. 2 ins. by 2 fl. 5 in. Rectangular grave, cut into lip of ditch. In the upper fililhere was a fragment of cremated bone (1971.560). Skeleton of young adult male, aged 20-30.' Grave was too small for body, so that the extended supine skeleton had its head twisted towards the r. and raised against the side of the grave, the spine twisted, and the feet turned inwards and pressed up against the lower end. R. hand across head of r. femur, I. hand by side wilh thumb across palm. keleton fairly complete. This person had suffered from, and probably died as a result of, an advanced case of osteogenic sarcoma in (he I. leg (see below, p. 257)· Associated objects : I. Iron knife (1971.558),just inside I. hand with point towards 1. elbow (? originally held in hand). Very fragmentary with both tang and end of blade broken off. Length extant 67 mm., greatest width II mn>. (flO. 4, b). 2. Amber beaG (1971.559), on 2nd thoracic vertebra. Disc-shape, 13 X4 mm.9 (FIG. 4, a). Gra"e 3 ( grave 24) (PL. XIX). S.W.-N.E. 6 ft. II ins. by 4 ft. by about I ft. 6 ins. Large sub-rectangular grave. A series of small marks, about I in. to 3 ins. long and of 'pencil.thickness', were observed within 4 ins. of the surface of the grave and were thought to be possible remains of wattle·lining. Across the head and foot, and along the I. side, but not the r. side, the grave, fromjwt below the surface, was lined with remains of carbonized wood (visible as dark unexcavattd ledges in the photographs) ; the feet were partially covered by this material, and a length of timber is visible in the grave·side above the l. arm. A slight internal ledge of gravel runs along the r. side, but the overlying carbonized material makes it unclear whether this continued round the rest of the grave; the section by the I. knee cut back through the dark soil to the grave-edge suggests that it did not. Loss of the detailed grave·plan makes it difficult to be more explicit about the structure of this grave (see below, p. 255). 1 'Ib.f' graves are described acc::ording to the followin'f conventions. Drown's Accession Register grave numbt-r i, given in bracket', and i, wed in the subsequem disclWion; the grave is described first, giving orit-ntation (head to feetl, length. width and depth, wh,.re known. and then other recorded details; the A,hmolean Museum \cc($Sion Register number is given after each object; measurements or ohjecu are in millimetres; I. left. r. righl . • Min Mary Harman has re-o:amined this skeleton. and considt'fs it to be a young female. ag«J 17-~1 (,(Oe bt-Iow. p. 257). , Ikad Ole.asuranents give the greatest di:unctcr fi"t, thr length JoeCond, where the length is taken as the axis of the borc·hole. the diameter as l~ axis pe~ndicular to the bore-hole. ,

TANIA M. DICKINSON

d a , b (0 --

c ,

no. 4- and (b) grave 23 i (c) grave 25; (d) grave:.l:6 or 27. Sc.: (a) 1/1. rest l.

Skeleton of young female sub-adult, aged about ,6-'7. Extended, supine, head turned towards r., spine twisted, hands over top of femurs) knees together and feet apart. Skeleton fairly complete. Associated objects : I. 80lllass brads ('971.559, 56" 566)'. (FlO. 5, ,). Only 23 ~ads are itt"lllized. in the excavatIOn notebook, few of which are now idrntifIable. They were found lea tiered ovor the entire body from should .... to pdvis with an unspecified numbc-r in a group in the lower ribs. A large segmented bead and a large single bead, and one of the large cylinders decorated with green and red marvering of t) IX f, wore found behind the rand l. knees resIXctively. a. 3 dull red opaque double-segment cylinders, 8 X '2 mm. b. 'yellow opaque doublc-segment cylinder, 8 X '2 mm. (". J white opaque double.. s("gmcnt cylinder, 8 X 12 mm. d. I white opaque single cylinder, B X 7 mm. e. I dull red opaque double-segment cyiind<:-r, onc segment with marvered yellow opaque 3-coil spiral, the other with two interlacing yellow opaque trails and yellow spots between, 6·5 >< '7 mm.

10 When Or. Catling gave me the beads In 1970. they were diVided into throe Stpar3le strings, one odd head and a fragment; attached labds attributed the necklaces respectively to gravCl 2. 3 and -to and the odd bead to grave 2. ThI"Y have bt-en accn.sn:l into tht" Ashmolean Mweum collection in tim way. "The excavation notebook, however. records broads only for grave 3. except for one amber bead to growe 2 ; srveral of the beads in the .tring alleged to be from grave 4- can be identified among those df';Krilxtl under grave 3" Dr. Catling auures me th.at only Rtave 3 did have beads. and it is very unlikely that grave .. containrd. a striltl of bead,- since it was an adult malt' see below. p. 2.7). Where there is mort' than one bead ora t'"PC only on(' has baen iIlustratt'd A! an example. EXCAVATIONS AT STANDLAKE DOWN IN 1954 245

f. 2 white opaque cylinders with two marvered interlacing viridian green trails and red opaque spots between, 10 ',,- I I mm. g. 1 white opaque elongated bicone (' barrel-shaped ') rnarvered with randomly spaced red opaque spots, 9 X 12 mm. h. t white opaque oblate sphere with two man'ered interlacing viridian green translucent trails, 8 X5 mm. i. 711 minute yellow opaque double-segment spheres, 4 X 7 mm.-5x8 mm. J. 28 minute yellow opaque single spheres, 3 X 3 mm.~ X4 mm. k. 3 minute yellow opaque dises, 6 x 3 mm. J. 3 minute greeny-yellow opaque double-segment cylinders, 4 X 5 mm. m. 3 minute greeny-yellow opaque single cylinders, 4 X 2'5 and 2X2'5 mm. n. 4 minute apple-green opaque cylinders, 3','; X3 mm. o. 2 minute green translucent cylinders, 4 X 3 mm. p. 6 dark blue opaque discs, 4 X 2 mm. q. 1 dark blue opaque sphere with neck at each end or borehole, 4 X4 mm. r. 1 dark blue opaque cylinder, 4 X 3 mm. s. t pale blue semi-translucent elongated cylinder, the glass having vertical striations, 3' 5 X 14 mm. I. 3 decomposed (? originally pale blue semi-translucent) cylinders with vertical striations, 4 X4 mm. u. I pale blue semi-translucent oblate sphere, 7 X 5 mm., and a fragment of another. v. I pale blue semi-translucent cylinder, 7 X 5 mm. w. 2 pale greeny-white semi-translucent oblate spheres, 6 X4 mm. x. I pale greeny-white semi-translucent sphere with 3 irregular lobes and veroCc."l1 striations, 4 )( 3 mm. y. I purple opaque elliptical tube, 5 x 8 mm.

2. ChQteiaille (1971.562) (FIG. 5, .). According to Catling's list of negatives, these objects were found in one com­ pacted group underneath the lert side or the chest; the notebook refers to a ? arrowhead by the l. forearm and another in the ribs, and to pieces of bronze in the area of the lower 1. ribs; close to these, fragments of wood were found, but it is unknown whether they ,vere associated with the chatelaine objects or with the postulated grave furniture. ~10st of the individual items from the group are now separated, and it is impossible to reconstruct them into more recognizable objects. a. 2 strips of rectangular sheet bronze, silvered or tinned on both sides, originally forming one piece of metal bent sharply in two ; the inner side of one bears three transverse incisions j to the other a fragment of iron rod. and an iron ring adhere with clearly visible replaced textile remains on it (see below, p. 254)· b. Group or 4 iron rods with looped heads rusted together, greatest length 61 mm. c. J J fragments of iron rods, some with looped cnds; onc has replaced textile in fine regular plain weave over il. d. Group or figure-or-eight iron links rusted together. e. Single figure-or-eight iron link, length 2·6 mm. f. ? buckle loop with part or tongue wrapped round it.

II ThiJ is the numbt-r of double-segment beads which 1 recorded in 1970; a year tater, when J re­ examined them, only four segmented ones remained, ilnd there was one extra single bead. It would seem that two double-segment heads wel"e lost completely, the third split in two. one of which was tost. These beads separate easily, so the proportion of double to single is perhaps a little ubitrary. TANIA M. DICKINSON

@ @ @ @ @ I I I I @ @ @ I I tj 0 (XI B h a b c d ~ e 9

@ @, @ @ ® @ @) , ~ © , ® I ~ Q I I c3 Q, 1.3 8 ~ S Cl ~ 0 k I m n 0 p q r ~ S ~ @ @ CO), ~ , ® @ r rriJ a 6l ~ G u v w x y ~~ -- 2 b • ~."-;'" G -~ ~ a c g e tJe ~ ~ ~ ~f l'

}fO·5 Grawt 2+. SC ( I) 1/1 ~) and (3) I· EXCAVATIONS AT STAND LAKE DOWN IN 1954 247 3. Fragment of rim-binding (1971.563), apparently with objects belonging to chate­ laine. Very thin sheet bronze folded in half, originally over some round­ sectioned rod or similar edge, with row of punched dots along base of' rim­ edge '. Length extant 18 rom. ; width extant 10 mm. (FIG. 5.3).

Cra,,,, 4 ( grave 25). S.-N. The record of this grave made by Catling has been lost, and unfortunately the photographs failed to develop satisfactorily, so that there are no details for it. Measured from the site plan, the grave was approximately 6 ft. by 2 ft. 6 ins. Dr. eatling says that this was the deepest grave which he excavated. In the grave fill from near the surface were fragments of cremated bone, a human incisor, a bovine molar, a fragment of charcoal and a prehistoric body sherd of soft, dark grey paste with a whitish­ pink surface. Skeleton of an elderly male, aged 50 or more. Extended, supine, head fallen backwards and lower jaw dropped on to cervical vertebra, r. hand in lap, l. hand by top of I. femur, and legs semi-flexed to I. Associated object: I. Iron knife (1971.564), under I. side of pelvu. Tips of tang and blade broken off and blade edge very eroded; straight back to blade. Length extant 151 mm. ; greatest width of blade 18 mm. (FIG. 4, c).

Cralits 5 and 6 ( graus 26 and 27). o details of these graves are known, nor to which one the associated object belonged: I. Half of a pair of iron shears (1971.565). Triangular profile blade, the back of which forms a continuous curve with the f tang'. Cleaning has revealed an exceptionally smooth • sheath-like' tip to the blade, and a diagonal line of similar metal a little above the point on one side only. Length extant 98 mm., blade length 56 mm., grealest width '7 mm. (FIG. 4, d).

DISCUSSION

I. THE ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERY AT STANDLAKE The six Anglo-Saxon graves recorded in 1954 form part of a much larger Anglo-Saxon cemetery (see Figs. , and 2), which has been excavated and recorded piecemeal over the past century and a half. The earliest references are to about 1825, when at least forty skeletorts were discovered during gravel digging; the only extant item is a gilt bronze disc decorated with an interlacing serpent, said to have been found in the same grave as a bronze thread-box. In ,857 and 1863 Stephen Stone recorded that he excavated a total of forty-two inhumations, though details of only eighteen are known. In 1897 Percy Manning recorded another grave (grave '9', which contained a saucer brooch, a nat annular brooch, a number of girdle-objects, and a spearhead and two knives, which may imply that more than one body was, in fact, found (for further discussion of this grave, see below, p. 250). In 1943 Riley noted a further group of graves north of circle 18, only one of which he was able to record fully, and in 1945 he found a single grave just south of circle 21. In '97' Pc. Wilkirtson pulled remairts of three skeletons from the quarry face close to this point. TANIA M. DICKINSON The site of the 19th century finds h:u nev« h<'en certain, but in this volume (see above p. 236) David Brown puts forward most convincing arguments for the site of Stone's 1857 and 1858 excavations having been in the area just south-east of circle 2 I." There is no evidence at all for the site of Stone's 1863 excavations, but they mu t have been in the same general area, and one suspects, therefore, that the 1825 graves also came from some part of this region. \\'e may envisage, then, a nucleated cemetery, centred on the four Bronze Age ring-ditches 17, 18, 19 and 21, from which we have records of nearly one hundred graves, but which, no doubt, contained far more than this number. Catling's 1954 graves may lie towards the western edge of this cemetery. \Vithin the cemetery, the graves do not all seem to have been laid out in a regular manner: although Stone's 1857 graves were in rows and oriented W.-E., he made no comment at all on the layout and orientation of his 1863 graves ; grave 20 from 1943 was laid out E. W. and the 1954 graves varied between S.\\'. X.E. and S.-~. The arrangement of graves also appears to have differed in relation to the ring-ditches themselve. Grave 7 w:u part of a regular row of graves, and the fact that it cut the ditch of circle 21 was probably fortuitous, bUI the orientation of the 1954 graves in relation to circle 17 may have been deliberate. They seem to hug the south-cast arc of the ditch, resembling the very orderly arrangement at Stanton Harcourt, Oxon.," where the bodies were placed radially around the east and south-east edge of a barrow-ditch. Although the Standlake graves are not truly' radial' burials, '. they do seem to respect the ditch-circle. I t would have been interesting to know whflher there were other groups of graves at Standlake situated around the ring-ditches, and whether they formed con­ tra'ting groups to more densely-packed graves ill regular rows. The siting of the cemetery in proximity to the Bronze Age ring-ditches, which in Saxon times'might still have been visible as slight mounds, was probably also deliberate. Anglo-Saxon cemeteries arc frequently found close to prehistoric barrows, which were obviously recognized as ancient burial sites and regarded as suitable for further graves. Within the Upper Thames region, at least sixteen other burial sites occur close to, or even in, a barrow ;'5 in areas like Wiltshire or East Yorkshire, where prehi toric barrows are numerous, the number i· even greater There seems to he nothing chronologically distinctive about t1lis custom. All the graves 0 far known from Stand lake can plausibly be dated to the 7th century The overall impres ion that ther give is of a cemetery-type characteristic of this period. Such ccmeterit"S have been intensively studied by T C. Lethbridge, E. T. Leed" Mrs. M. Hyslop and ~frs. S. C. Hawkrs, and u 1 am m~t grateful to David Broy,o for allowing me to read a dr.dl of his artide prior to publica. tion. which has enabled me to incorpor.ltc his finrlin'tJ in this report. He will forgive me for al!lO taking the opportunity to commrnt On thOIt' points which I lind less .1c-ceptablC"'_ I) D. n. Harden and R. C. Trcweelu,' Excavations at Stanton Harcourt. Olton., 1940, II " OJ(oninuia, x ( 194'; ). 10--41. especially Fig. 7. 14 I discuss radial burials in greater detail in • CuddNdon and Dorchester-on-"IhaI11el, Oxfonlahirc : t .... ,o o.rly Saxon' princdy' sites in W('Sao:' , Rrilijh .h(~timl /U/'Mls. t. (19141. 1Q-20. It E.g. Abinl{don I, Bledlow Cop, C!:m.inglon IJ (Smith's Pit II t. C:havena~e. Cudclcsdon (?). Clyffe P)l'3rd, Oorchnter III (Burco1\. Hampnett. l.ower He\ford (?). L,.-neham, Oddington (Glos.), Manton St. LawTrnC'C (1). Stanto.o Harcourt. Tlu~nford, Lipper Swell and Yarn ton (?). EXCAVATIONS AT STANDLAKE DOWN IN 1954 249 have been variously described by them as • Christian', ' proto-Christian' and , Final Phase , .• 6 Although these cemeterie reflect in many ways the reception of Christian teaching, they cannot be regarded as strictly Christian cemeteries, and I prefer to follow Leeds in using the purely chronological term' Final Phase' for them. Classic' Final Phase' features at Standlake include the arrangement of graves in regular rows, their W.-E. orientation, and the complete absence of grave-goods or presence of an iron knife only in many graves. Typical of the occasional rich graves found in 'Final Phase' cemeteries is grave 8, probably datable to the second half of the 7th century, which contained two gold pendants, one set with a cabochon garnet, a number of beads and a chatelaine composed of an iron key, a silvered bronze-foil cross with interlace decoration, a bone ring, and an openwork bronze girdle-hanger. The 1825 grave with zoomorphic disc and thread-box should be another, and the un associated bronze disc decorated in gold wire inlay with four 'Style II' animals (Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, PR 69(8386), presumably from this Standlake site, ought to represent yet another. Some graves in the StandJake cemetery exhibit features more typical of the period immediately preceding the' Final Phase', though there is no neces ity to date them before the early 7th century. One such feature is the presence of a large number of amber beads; nineteen tiny beads were found in grave 10, which presumably was situated close to the other graves found in March 1863, including grave 8, mentioned above, and, if the unassociated necklace Ofgl amber beads in the Pitt Rivers Museum also comes from this site at Standlake, it must represent another such grave. I shall argue below (p. 254) that grave 24 should also be dated to the earlier 7th century: its necklace, in particular, retains several features more typical of the so-called ' pagan' phases, rather than the true ' Final Phase' of Anglo-Saxon cemeteries. The distinctions noted in the arrangement and layout of graves may also indicate consecutive phases of burial within the Stand lake cemetery. Thus, although the majority of the Standlake graves belong to the ' Final Phase', the first u e of the cemetery must be dated several decades before Christian missionaries are known to have reached the Upper Thames (about 635), when objects typical of the later periods of completely' pagan' cemeteries were still In vogue. There are a number of other cemeteries belonging to the' Final Phase' not far from Standlake, on either side of the lower Wind rush, at Yelford, Ducklington and Stanton Harcourt, and also further away, on the upper EvenIode, at North

16 The characteristics and dating of these cemeteries arc fully discussed by these authors. and in dis· cussing the Standlake grave-goods, I shall not normally repeat references to these works justifying dating: T. C. Lethbridge, • Recent excavations in Anglo-Saxon cemeteries in Cambridgeshire and Suffolk 'J C6mbridg. AJlliquarian &citty Quarto Publicatwns, n.s. III (1931), especially 47-8, 75-86. and' A cemetery at Shud)' ~mps, Cambridgeshire 'J ibid .. v (1936), especially 2:7-31 ; E. T. Leeds, Early Anglo-Saxon Art IJIId Arc/liuologJ (1936), q6-114; M. Hyslop•• Two An~lo-Saxon cemeteries at Chamberlains Bam, Leighton Buzzard, Ikdfordshire 'J Arch. J., cxx (1963), 161~OO; A. L. Meaney and S. C. Hawkes, Two A,"Klo--S4xon C61JUkrW IJt U'innllll, WinchuUr, Hampshir6 ( 1970), 45-55; S. C. Hawkes, • The dating and lOCial lignificanct: of the burials in the PoLhill cemetery', in ExCQUlticms in W6st Kent 1960-70, ed. B. Philp (1973), ,86--2:01. TAN 1.'\ M. DICKI. 'SON Leigh, Chadlington and po ihly Spelsbury and Lyneham. The area of the lower Windru h was . euled well before the 7th century, but the increased evidence for Saxons there, and in the upper Evenlode, during the 7th century may indicate a penetration of Wychwood from the Thames· ide settlement. It is possible that Standlake itself resulted from a shift of population from Bright­ hampton, nearly a mile to the south, where a cemetery of the later 5th and 6th centuries i well-recorded. At that date, the motive for shifting settlement or cemetery can hardly be Christianity' 7 However, it may be possible to relate the Stand lake cemetery to Saxon occupation even closer than Brighthampton. This involves a consideration of Standlake grave 19. It follows from the arguments set out above for the recog­ nition of a pre- 'Final Phase' stage in the cemetery that grave 19 is not' quite out of place', as David Brown proposes (above p. 238), and I am unwilling to accept hi> objections to, and alternative suggestion for, the provenance of the material. The saucer brooch," which ought to be the best guide to the grave's date, falls at the \'ery end of the saucer hrooch sequence and could be placed as early as about 600 A.D., but could just as well have bren made, and no doubt worn, many years after that datt·. The beads, mainly typical of those found in • pagan' cemeteries, have links with the bead in grave 24 (see below, p. 252). Although grave 19 reflects traditions ofa period earlier than most of the Standlake graves, in terms of absolute chronology, it may be contemporary with the earlier graves of the nucleated cemetery. Brown is quite right to point out thruncertaintyover the position of grave 19 (on my map, Fig. I, I follow the published evidence in placing it near the Old Quarry), but if we accept the dt·tailed and convincing account of the grave given by ~fanning,19 presumably deriving from the labourer who found it, why should we reject his attribution of the finds? There is no necessity for the goods to have come from two women's graves: there arc only two brooches, and the bronze disc which might originally have been part of one of the rare' applied disc/saucer' brooches, ,. was, at the time of burial, more likely part of a purse­ or girdle-group. ~loreover, there is at lea t one example of a woman', grave provided with a spearhead!" The goods could conceivably all have belonged to a single woman's burial of this wrt; but a more likely explanation is that it wa' a rohhed double-burial, the spearhead and a knife being all that was left of an upper disturbed male burial, while the lower female burial remained intact.:U Grave 19, then, can be attributed to Standlake Down, but presumably was

., St'f' Meaney and Hawkes. ofJ· cil., 53-4. " Victoria Cmm{7 History of OxjQrdJ!Urc. I (1'136). PI. XX\'1ll, h. '" Bub Bllt"b and O:am ArduuoloKic41 JOUT1lOI. IV (J&jn, •... found at a depth of about lhr~ feet, a !.keJcton lying at futllength. with its head to the east '. 10 Cj a brooch from Barrington' B', Cambs., in the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Elhno-­ gmph.... u Shudy CamPI grave 76 (l.~lhbridge. vp. til., 23), wht're W spearhead was part of a group of chltelailu:' objects. n Mr. A. C. Hogarth has kindly allowed me to Dy that this appcan to have been the cue in grave 54 at St. Peter'" Broadstain, Kent. EXCAVATIONS AT STANDLAKE DOWN IN 1954 251 found some distance from the nucleated cemetery.'3 Is it possible that it is the sole survivor of a group of burials north of the Old Quarry and north-east of the Witney Road Brown points out that there is little evidence of burials to the south­ west of the road·? It may represent a group of burials prior to a transition to the' Final Phase' cemetery, and it would recall a sequence of cemeteries observed at other sites, notably at Leighton Buzzard, where Chamberlains Barn I, dated to the late 6th and early 7th century, was replaced by the 'Final Phase' Chamberlains Barn II, some 80 yards to the south-east. Since grave 19 belongs to the same stage as the earliest graves of the nucleated cemetery, it presumably represents the latest stage of this hypothetical second cemetery. There is, however, yet another cemetery which might precede the 'Final Phase' one. A number of burials was noted by Stone about a quarter of a mile to the east of his J863 excavations," but he was able to record only one grave, which contained a spearhead, not now extant, so that, again, there is no good evidence for the date of this cemetery. As Leeds pointed out,'5 this seems to be the same site as a gravel pit investigated by Stone in 1857, when it seems that he excavated a grnbtnhalls: double-ended bone points were recovered from a sunken area. aturally, the precise location depends on where the 1863 site was, but since it must now be within the area of circles 17, 18, 19 and 21, this would place the other cemetery close to the lane which runs fTom the Witney road to Standlake village (see Fig. I ). But for the loss of so much evidence, Standlake Down might have provided a most interesting series of cemeteries, and possibly an associated settlement site.

2. GRAVE-GOOOS AND STRUCTURES FROM THE 1954 GRAVES Since most of the known graves at Standlake belong to the' Final Phase', and even those which typologically are of an earHer phase could be dated to c. 600 or even later, it may be expected that the 1954 graves also belong to the 7th century. one of the objects from them are 'leading types' in 'Final Phase' graves, and there are no general surveys of their classes of object. It is obviously easy to search for parallels amongst known' Final Phase' cemeteries, but for an honest appraisal all Anglo-Saxon cemeteries should be examined, a task which seems unnecessarily exhaustive for the purposes of commenting on these few graves. I have contented myself, therefore, with drawing parallels primarily from my corpus of evidence from all the Upper Thames region ceme­ teries, much ofwh;ch is unpubHshed ; this at least gives a local perspective to the Standlake items.

Btads Thc single amber bead found at the neck of the young man in grave 23 is of little assistance in dating the grave. There are some fIfteen graves in the

I tn OXflTIinuiD, VIII-IX ( 19.13-4). '99. grave Iq is placed just north-west of the cross-lane between circles 17 and 21, that is nOrth-wesl of grave 20 of the nucleated cemetery j this seems to be based on nothing mor(' than a nmint('rpretation of L('('cb's cnlry in V.C.H. Oxon ., 1 ('936),363. 14 Proc. &C. Anti,! .• 1St ser. IV ( .857), 98. 's V.CH., O)C(m., 1 (1936),363. TANIA M. DICKINSON Upper Thames region in whkh one or two amber beads have been found, ranging in date from at least the beginnmg of the 6th century right through into the 7th. .'ormally they are found by the neck, as if worn as a necklet, but they can occur by hands or hips. The Stand lake grave is exceptional in being the only recorded burial of a male with beads of thi, kind, all others being females or children. 'ot surprisingly, beads are not characteri:;tic male grave-goods, and when they do occur in men's graves can often be interpreted as sword-bead, or toggles. Amber was traditionally thought to have magical properties, so perhaps the hope that some apotropaic object might ward off the mortal disease which amicted this young man overrode normal customs. However, if Miss Harman is right, and it makes bettcr sen'e of the grave-goods ifshe is, the skeleton in grave 23 is a young female; all the above arguments are obviated, and the grave becomes unremarkable. All the other beads came from grave 24. Most of them were scattered all over the upper body, and it is now impo,sible to know how the original necklace was strung. The three beads recorded from underneath the knees may have had a different function, pos,ibly ornamenting the ends of garter-laces, and similar in purpose to the bronze lace-tags often found by the feet or shins of 7th century skeletons.· 6 Little work has been done in England on the dating of beads,'7 and there are few publi hed excavations where the beads are adequately described. In particular, there is little evidence for the length of time lhat individual bead could survive in necklace combinations after their type had generally gone out of favour. The beads from grave 24 may be divided into four main groups Group A types a-d, monochrome opaque glass cylinders. Group B types e-h, marvered polychrome opaque glass. Group C types i-o, miniature glas beads, all but 0 being opaque. Group D t)1'es p--x, miscellaneous types, including semi-translucent and vertically striated glass. Type y falls into no group, and is unusual. The closest parallel from the Upper Thames is a similar uneven tube of brown opaque glass from Long Wittenham I grave 123, datable to the second half of the 6th century on the basis of its saucer brooches imitating Kenti h disc brooches of Leeds's Class la, and its stamped and ribbed silver bracelet of Anglian type.·s Group A; This is the most diagnostic group. Beads instantly recognizable as 7th century are truncated bicones in plain opaque glass, often of terra­ cotta red, bright apple green, dark turquoise and canary yellow, made by " Dickinson, op. cil., 7-8. "On the continent, there has been mort detailed analysis i see especially. F. Fremendorf, Das Fr~1u Gr4Hrlt/~ K61n~A1IingtrsJorJ, Berlin .( '9~5). 80-90; K: 8Ohn~r. Die Fr4nlc&chm Allm"".". ~s Tnntr IANltS, Berhn (lgj8), ,1-82 ; R. Chrutlem, D4J ~lamdtvtl1'Ju ReW",rdbtrjtltl 00rt .UarktolHrdor/ 1m All,fJU, Ka1JmQnz (1g66), 71--3. Ahhough lOme bead types occur at similar dales in Gennaoy and in the Upper Thames. othen do not, 10 thCle continental .tudics cannot be applied wholesale to the home situation. d Set: D. H. Kennelt, • Pottery and other finda from the Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Sandy, Bedford· .hire " "ltd. .A.nh., XlV (1970), 2~. EXCAVATIONS AT STANDLAKE DOWN IN 1954 253 twisting glass round a rod.'9 They are known from six graves in the Upper Thames, two of which, Longcot, Berks., and the rich grave 8 at Stand lake, also contained cylindrical red beads similar to our type a. Stand lake grave 19 also contained a cylindrical red bead, and the unstratified grave-goods from Chavenage Glos. (all of late 6th or early 7th century date), included a red biconical bead and a cylindrical yellow one comparable to our type b. Cylindrical plain opaque beads, especially the segmented variety, seem to belong to the 7th century, though beads in this sort of glass, usually oblate spheres, are known from much earlier, and East Shefford, Berks., grave VIII, included a red rounded bicone. Group B: As a corollary to the general preference for monochrome beads in the 7th century, marvered polychrome beads become rare, though they are not unknown. Despite the enormous abundance of these beads in the 5th and 6th centuries, it is surprisingly difficult to cite exact parallels for the Stand­ lake grave 24 ones. Beads like type h are very common, yet most have marvered trails in translucent blue, or, if they are in green, another decorative element is added. Beads similar to type e come from Abingdon I grave 3, and East Shefford grave XIII, but they are both single segments. Type g seems to be more or less identical with two beads from Chamberlains Barn I grave 3,lO which contained several polychrome beads. Dating of that grave is itself tenuous, but like the cemetery in general it seems to belong to the late 6th/early 7th century (see above, p. 249). Group C: I have been unable to find many parallels for group C beads. They do occur amongst unstratified strings of beads from Faversham, Canterbury, Chartham Downs and Haslingfield in the Ashmolean Museum, the first three possibly coming from 7th century graves. Examples of type i occur, signi­ ficantly, in the necklace from grave [[ at Standlake together with a green opaque bicone, and six beads of type k were among the Chavenage assemblage. Minute yellow opaque beads were in use in the 7th century, but they were produced at an earlier date. Mrs. Sonia Hawkes has drawn my attention to a necklace from a 6th century grave at Kingsworthy, Hants.: it included 2 miniature yellow double-segment dises and 2 [ single, 3 beads of our type n, 44 ' pearl ' beads, 134 amber and 2 rock crystal beads. In the Upper Thames, similar early contexts may be cited for some miniature beads; Abingdon I grave 78 contained a small double-segmented grecn opaque sphere and a single cylinder in association with amber and' pearl' beads; East Shefford grave XII contained eight beads of type 0 together with polychrome, ' pearl' and blue opaque spirally-segmented beads (similar to type q), as well as a buckle with cast-in-one rectangular plate and vestigial confronted animal heads on the loop, reminiscent of both Hawkes type Ia and IIIb buckles,l' which may suggest a date in the 5th century. Group D: Most of group D are also fairly tiny beads, but they differ little from many undistinguished beads from 5th/6th century necklaces: types p-r ., Leeds, op. cit., 99. and other publicalions cited in n. 16; (or continent, Christlein, op. cil., 73. J' Hyslop, op. cit., 167. 188-q, fig. 4. n-o. JI S. C. Hawkes and G. C. Dunning, 'Soldien and settlen in Britain, fourth to fifth century'J Aflt!. Arch., v (1g61 ). especially 4' and Go. 17 254 TANIA M. DICKI:-ISON belong to one of the most ubiquitous of glass bead types, but are rather smaller than average. Type s is more distinctive, and can occur in blue or green glass in graves ranging from at least the early 6th century (Abingdon I grave 1I9J to the 7th (Longcot, Standlake grave 8 and Standlake unstratified). The small semi-translucent bead., esp cially types t, " and x, and also 0, differ little in general appcarance from' pearl' or • overlaid' beads, those spherical, often segmented, yellowy-white beads with vertical striations in tile glass, sometimes clearly retaining their coating of gold or sih'er, and common from late Roman times on the continent and in England.l' None of these Standlake beads are • pearl' beads, but they, and possibl)' the other small, spherical segmented beads, bear a typological re.emblance. The bead as ociations cited in this discussion suggest that a 7th century date for grave 24 is quite consistent. The fact that the necklace was very large in comparison with most' Final Phase' ones, and that it included a number of beads common at an earlier period, may impl)' that the date is not very advanced in the 7th century. eMlriain. Grave 24 also contained a group of iron and bronze items. The figure-of­ eight chain links and the iron keys can be identified as components of a cMtelaine. ChiHelaines are usually recognized in graves as groups of objects strung out from the waist down the side ofa leg; simple iron keys (usually rods with curved end') are a basic item among the functional and ornamental items. The position of the gr.,·e 2~ objects, in a compact group underneath the ribs, presents a little dilliculty. It would not have been easy for a cldtelaine strung from the waist to have slipped back into such a position, though allowance must be made for the eVident collapse of the skeleton and the possibility of the chatelaine having been caught up in a fold of the drt'Ss, which, on decay, left the objects in this position. The replaced textile on all the iron objects could, however, have come from a purse rather than clothing, tbe pit'ce of tahlet weave pr~bably represents a belt, and fragment f may he a buckle for a purse-strap. The objects may haw l"'en inside a purse; certainly the t\\O bronze fragments were not suspendnl directly from the chatelaine, and mu t have been kept in a bag. Only one chatelaine has been found in silu in the Upper Thames area, and that is in Standlake grave 8, where the objects were deposited by the right knee (see above, p. 249). Int r tingly, the chatelaine complex included a number of piect·s of gla. s, and possibly iron oddments, which must have been in a ba,I( attached to the chatelaine. Yelford grave J6 contained a similar as>cmblage of objects. but these were deposited in a bag close to the skull. Graves excavated by Lethbridge in East Anglia also showed that chatelaines could be found either worn as in life from the waist, or deposited in a purse or trinket-box elsewhere in the grave ;ll he con idered chatelaines to be another typical 7th century grave-good. J' Frem~ndorf. "p. til., 8&-7. JI E., .. Holvwdl Row 70, Burwell4:l, 84. 1:21, Utile Wilbraham 3B. Shudy Camps 19.31. +'2 and ,6 : in Burwell 76 the objects w('re in a group by the skull. EXCAVATIONS AT STAND LAKE DOWN IN 1954 255 The custom of suspending oddments from the waist, notably toilet sets, rings and iron keys, either in purses or hung loose, was well-established during the pagan period.H The use of a long chatelaine, composed of metal rings or chain-links, however, does seem to be confined to the 7th century. The unusual position of the grave 24 assemblage makes it appear, at first glance, little different from purse- or girdle-group found in pagan graves, but ti,e presence of four or five iron links indicates that it did represent a chatelaine, albeit a relatively short one. Whether the chatelaine was inside a purse, and if so, why, must remain outstanding problems. Shears (grave 26 or 27) Shears are rarely found on settlement sites : half a pair was identified from the mass of mainly Saxon ironwork in the ditch at Shakenoak villa, Oxon., though the illustration of it is not particularly distinctive.]5 In the Upper Thames region, they arc not very common as grave-finds either; a large pair was found in grave 23 at Fairford, Clos., together with a small spearhead, a 'lance' ( ? angon), a bronze-bound bucket and a bronze cauldron (last three items now lost, ? 5th or 6th century) ; an unstratified pair comes from the' Final Phase' cemetery at North Leigh,]' and a small pair from the late 7th century barrow­ burial on Lowbury Hill, Berks.]) Another pair was found in a grave at Sntith's Pit II, Cassington,]8 but it is not clear whether the grave belonged to the Roman or Saxon period, and the pair among several stray finds from Ashdown, Berks, might belong anywhere in the Saxon period. Although shears were occasionally put in graves at an earlier date, they may have been more popular in the 7th century: Lethbridge discovered shears in five graves from the' Final Phase' cemeteries of Burwell and Shudy Camps.]9 In the 5th and 6th centuries, shears occur among the sets of ntiniature toilet items deposited in cremation urns, a custom noted both on the continent and in this country. Whether burial of life-size shears in inhumations at an apparently later date represents a development of the same beliefS expressed in the deposits of ntiniature shears in cremations, is an interesting, but probably insoluble, point. The Grave-Structure qf Grave 24 Lack of positive and detailed evidence for the grave-structure of grave 24 makes an interpretation of it most difficult. The extensive areas of soil containing carbonized wood should represent some internal wooden structure, of which the single timber-beam or pole may represent a part. The grave was cut very large, presumably to accommodate this structure. At the time of excavation, Dr. Catling had the impression that the corpse had been protected from super- H Mrs. Hawkes makes '<)ITIC interesting comments on the sociallignificance of keys in female graves in Haww ( 1971 ), 1!'3· H A. C. C. Brodribb It aI. , ExctJl'otirlflJ at SIuJJccwaJr. III ( /971 ' . 86.

3' E. T. Leeds .• Two Saxon O=-meteries in North Oxfon:hhire'J OX()PIit'Ula, v (1940). !II, PI. VII, c. J7 D, AtkilUOn. TIre RmniilfO-B,itisll Siu on lAu6f1T.1 Hill ( 1916), 17 and 21 , PI. VI, 2. ). Oxorrinuia. xv ('950\, 104-0. n BurweU 2, 42 and 83 (last two are rich late 7th century graves), Shudy Camps 75 and 76. TANIA M. DICKINSON incumbent earth, resulting, on decay of the body-tissues, in the collap ed state of the skeleton. The absence of carbonized material along the right side of the grave, which can hardly be due to roil erosion, makes it difficult to envisage what sort of structure this might have been; it does not suit a conventional coffin, which would have been consistent with the extent of carboni7.ed wood, nor a wooden lid, whieh should have left its traces over the entire grave. Perhaps the carbonized wood represents blocks of timber uprights which supported a light-weight (? wattle) roof, tl,e timber pole being part of its external frame, but this still does not fully explain why no supports were necessary on the right ,ide. Grave-structures in some 7th century cemeteries have been studied by Mr. A. C. Hogarth... He describes the occurrence of slots and ledges along grave-edges, ,orne of which supported wooden lids, and in one case a pitched • tent-like' structure; the position of some ledges suggests that they were not used to support lids, but unfortunately Hogarth discusses nothing comparable with Stand lake grave '4. At Abingdon, Leeds did record evidence of decayed blocks of wood, often irregularly placed in the grave, t.g. gra,·es 'g, 77 and 78 ; graves 60 and 65 were completely surrounded by wood, implying the use of a coffin.,' Traces of wooden planks around most of the body were noted at Harwell, Berks., grave 6." Hogarth points out, few complex grave-structures have been recorded; when more are recognized in excavation, it may be possible to produce an explanation of the features in grave '4.

ACKNOWLEDGE~1ENTS Dr. Catling would like to thank the owner of the land for perml'510n to excavate and for his donation of the finds to the A.hmolean Museum. I am most grateful to Mrs. S. C. Hawkes and Dr. Catling, who read a preliminary draft of this article; to Mrs. Pat Clarke, who drew Fi~. 4 and 5; to the Ash­ molean Museum photographers, who did the prints for Pis. XVIIIA, and XIX, and to Mr. R. L. Wilkins who prepared a copy of the photograph for PI. XVIIIB.

APPENDIX I: THE HUMA."< BONES

by D. F. ROBERTS41 F"'"'"i1, Department of Humon Anatomy, Univmi!! of Oxford GraDl [ : This fairly complete skeleton is that of a mature adult female', aged about 40 . The skull is extremely thick (13·7 mm. on the frontal, '7.0 mm. on the parietals) 4_' StruCtural features in Anglo-Saxon gra.. es', ~~n/iq. J. (rorthcoming). 41 E. T. I.ecds and O. B. Harden. 17v AnIJ~SaxQfl UIIIItny at .4bm.,dt.m. Btrksltj" 11936), 36, -1-3, 44, 46. • 1 J. R. Kirk and K. Marshall, • A Saxon oemetery near the village of Harwell. Berkshire " Oxcninui4, XXI ('956). '7. u Dr. Calling has asked me to fUbllih verba lim the report submitted to him by Dr. Ro~rtJ, who aamined the !lk.detons in situ, as we:! as in the laboratory. Subs.equ~ntlv. Miss Mary Harman hasstudiro lhele bones u part of her contribution on skeletal remains to David Brown's QwL,p6 0/ Anglt)-$ac1ft Grtl1;Vs twI GrtWtlflOlls in tk Uppn TMm.t1 Valky, who-e sh~ givCl full details of dental formulae, long· bone mearu.rementl and pathology. Since this volume is lOOn to be ",;th the prest, I have incorporated pomts from Harman's study only where they give important additional information or contradict Robttt'J conclusions; I am mOlt grateful to David Brown for allowing me to do this. EXCAVATIONS AT STANDLAKE DOWN IN 1954 257 and the frontal sinuses are well developed. Estimated stature 5 ft. 3 ins. Crouched burial on right side .....

Grar-e 2: Skeleton fairly complete. A young adult male, aged 20-30, of light build. An advanced case of osteogenic sarcoma, the primary tumour being situatrd at the distal end of the left femur, where its dimensions were approximately 10 ins. (vertically) by II ins. (horizontally) ; a fracture had clearly occurred at an early stage, the tibia being ilisplaced laterally 4 ins. to 5 ins. Numerous secondary lesions. Extended burial on back .• ! Grave 3: Skeleton fairly complete. A young female, sub-adult, aged about 16-17, of light build. Lenglh of long bones not measurable on account of lack of fusion of epiphyses. Extended burial on back .• ' Grave 4: Skeleton fairly complete. An elderly male adult, minimum age over 50, very probably considerably older. Edentulous, with complete ossification of alveoli. Of medium build. Stature 5 ft. 4 ins. to 5 ft. 5 ins. Extended burial..,

APPENDIX II: THE TEXTILES FROM GRAVE 24

by EUZADETH CROWFOOT Replaced textile is present on one, and in some cases both surfaces of all the iron fragments, the larg

The Sociery gratifully acknowledges a grant jrom the Department oj the Environment jor this paper.

H Harman thinks lhat the thickening of the .kull and enlargement of the sinuses is due to a minor endocrine disorder. Sh~ nOtes that the left arm and hand bones are much lighter and shorter than those of the right, suqesting IOSI or reduction of use of that ann before growth was completed. The lower left 3rd molar had nO( developed; the lower right 3rd molar and lo,,"cr right and left 1St molars were carious. She estimates staturc as 5 ft. 51 ins. H Harman considcrI this skeleton to be a female on the basi. of skull features, the large sciatic notch of the pelvis and the slwder bones j lack of fusion of some epiphyses and of surface wear of teeth implies an age of 17-'1.1. The malignant tumour, first recognized by Roberts and later discussed by O. R. Brothwell, • The evidence for neoplasms', in Di.stlJJt! in AlIliljllit)" ed. D. R. Brothwell and A. T. Sandison, pring(jeld (1967).33', Figs. &i and lIb, has been confirmed by modern radiograph •. Harman estimates height aJ S fl:. It ins. 4' liarman gives age as 1&-:1:0. and notel that the upper right 3rd molar is unerupted, while the lower grd molan are not developed. 41 Harman atimates a~e as over 45 years and hril(hl as 5 ft. 51 ins. She notes osteo-arthritic chanl(cs of vertebrae and ends of arm bones. All the upper jaw teeth. the 1St to 3rd lower right molars. and the lower left pre-molar. 2nd and 3rd molan had been lost anle-mortem; abtcesses affected six teeth. 4I\\11S X\ NI

ql\\ [b",liN X \,i\,~~ ! t7 \\ I It) XM 1),NI])(\MN IN ! XIX ILXV Id